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Gott soll allein mein Herze haben, BWV169

Introduction

BWV169 Gott soll allein mein Herze habenis, to my mind, the most consistently beautiful of Bach’s cantatas for solo alto. Like BWV35, it incorporates movements from an earlier instrumental concerto arranged for obbligato organ. Here it is the prelude and the second aria (No 5) which originated in the lost work, possibly for oboe, flute or oboe d’amore, that Bach later reworked as the familiar E major harpsichord concerto, BWV1053 (it may also have resurfaced as a genuine organ concerto with Bach as soloist, written to inaugurate the new Silbermann organ installed in Dresden’s Sophienkirche in 1725). The extended opening sinfonia that includes three new, partly independent, parts for oboes, gives added weight to the cantata. The writing for obbligato organ is here so much more assured and convincing than in, say, Vergnügte Ruh, BWV170. So far it has eluded scholars whether Bach actively sought out cantata librettos that he deemed suited to solo vocal treatment for the six cantatas for solo voice he composed in the run-up to Advent 1726, and to what extent he might have intervened in their construction, or whether their texts were clerically imposed on him and, with their emphasis on individual piety, left him no option but to treat them as solo works. In its devotional lucidity and outward simplicity the first vocal arioso must have appealed to even the most hair-shirted Pietist in Leipzig. It opens with a motto in the basso continuo that is then passed to the alto and acts like a rondo motif, framing the anonymous libretto’s extrapolation of the Sunday Gospel concerned with the love of God, and recurring in a freely inverted form at the start of the first aria (No 3), with its ornate organ obbligato continuing in minuet rhythm and in mainly diatonic tonality. A close collaboration between Bach and his librettist in the formulation of this motto, Dürr suggests, is the basis for creating an overarching unity flowing from a single, rhetorically-derived idea (propositio) that permits an implied dialogue between this figure—the repeated ‘God alone shall have my heart’—and a gloss (confirmatio) given to it in recitative. It is a perfect example of Bach’s skill in following admonitions by contemporary music theorists to ‘grasp the sense of the text’ (Mauritius Vogt, 1719) with the goal of ‘refined and text-related musical expression … the true purpose of music’ (Johann David Heinichen, 1711). Its mood of gentle, insistent piety based on the observation of Christ’s twin commandments is in extreme contrast to Bach’s stern and unforgettably imposing laying down of these laws three years earlier in Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben, BWV77.

Hugely impressive, too, is the way Bach adds a brand new vocal line to his pre-existing siciliano for strings (No 5), the slow movement of his former oboe-or-organ-or-harpsichord concerto. With its theme of farewell to worldly life, its irregular prosody and rhyme scheme, it lends weight to David Schulenberg’s contention that the text ‘must have been written, or at least adapted, specifically for use in the present contrafactum’. It is almost as skilful, and every bit as felicitous, as his similar grafting of four new vocal lines onto the rootstock of his D minor harpsichord concerto in Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal, BWV146. This richly extended rejection of worldly temptations in favour of God’s love is followed by a brief reminder of the second commandment (‘Treat your neighbour well!’) in recitative (No 6), included almost as an afterthought and offering a prelude to a congregational prayer on the same topic, the third verse of Luther’s ‘Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist’ (1524).

Recordings

'James Bowman is on impressive form and his admirers need not hesitate here' (The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs)'After hearing the first three notes of Cantata 170 my expectations of this recording were high. I was not disappointed' (Hi-Fi News)» More

God has my heart, there he abides. I know the things of earth Are nothing but dust, of little worth, Though they appear so dear to me; The world would have me stray, And seeks to lead my soul away. But no! God has my heart, there he abides: I find my greatest joy in him. At times we notice flowing, here or there, A little stream of happiness, That trickles from the Hills of Plenty; God is a mighty fount, by mighty waters nourished, When weary I come to satisfy my thirst, And there refresh me: God abides in my heart for ever.

What is the love of God? The soul’s rest, the everlasting spring, The spirit’s paradise. It shuts hell’s gate, And opens Heaven’s wide. I bid farewell to earth And in Elias’ chariot ride To rest in Abram’s bosom.